Setting Changes In The Novel Jewel By

Bret Lott Essay, Research Paper

Setting marks the beginning of the plot and is the most important aspect to consider when writing a novel. The setting is more than just the place where the plot occurs; it can mean much more to the theme of the novel. Setting creates a mood that surrounds the characters and enhances their identity by using writing devices to reveal an underlying theme to their character. This also creates an underlying theme to the novel. Setting changes also create a mood that helps the author more fully establish an idea that they wish to convey. This can relate to the feelings of the characters in certain settings. Also, setting changes are added to create a more interesting plot and more intricate characters. Setting uses writing devices to develop the story s intricate characters, thus producing a more vibrant and effective plot. Therefore, the setting changes in the novel Jewel enhance and personify the novel’s theme of overcoming obstacles, most obvious in Bret Lott s use of symbolism, imagery, and pathetic fallacy.

An author uses symbolism to relay meanings for different settings in a more subtle manner, which helps to reveal a character s true personality. At an early age, Jewel faces the difficulty of becoming an orphan, and moves in with her Grandmother Missy Cook. This move to her Grandmother s house is a symbol for the end of her simple free-spirited life she led with her mother, and the beginning of her sheltered set out life she leads under the care of Missy Cook. This symbol is represented by the setting of Missy Cook s house and in the way Missy Cook is described in this passage: “She seemed to float down the staircase, the hem of her dress simply dancing about her hidden feet, so for a moment I thought maybe she had died, was in fact a ghost before me” (Lott 21). This description of Missy Cook portrays somewhat a supernatural figure that is cool and harsh, while creating a prison like atmosphere for young Jewel Hilburn. However, this prison-like atmosphere proves to make Jewel a stronger person; because of this harsh childhood she gives her children twice the love she lacked and dedicates her motherhood to securing a special motherly bond with each of her six children.

Another example of how symbolism in setting change is effective is when the Hilburns move back to Mississippi after a prosperous life in California. The move, or change of setting, is a symbol of how Mississippi is a form of sadness, and California is happiness. Just after Jewel and her husband Leston move back to Mississippi her description of her childhood home changes. She now describes Mississippi as, ” the air cooler, no less stagnant than out on the water and in the woods” (Lott 296). The words are cold and represent Mississippi as a cold, dreary place. Jewel uses the word stagnant to describe Mississippi as a home with no life, contrary to their old life in California. Symbolism in these settings is very effective in reflecting the emotions of the characters, as well as making it easier to relate the setting with these feelings of the character.

Imagery helps the descriptions of the characters, and the events in the plot, feel real while personifying the setting. Imagery proves that Jewel s descriptions of California has a deeper meaning: “I saw orange blossoms going strong, took in the warm salt-filled sea air and the crystal blue sky; and I saw a place where Brenda Kay would find friends, teachers, and saw Leston at work somewhere, doing something, the doing it was all that mattered” (Lott 163). This quotation proves, through imagery, that Jewel s vivid description of California shows her passion for a better life for her children. This also shows her selfless and dreaming character. This quotation shows her dedication for a new life away from the hardship of Mississippi and the happy description associated with California. The imagery associated with this setting change, also shows her dedication, when considering what the Hilburn family has been through and how Jewel s passion originates from past experiences.

Lott also uses imagery effectively to show Jewel s feeling for the past and how it effects her as a mother. The smell of her father s hair pomade, as she describes in this quotation, ” his black hair slicked back and shiny with pomade. It was the thick sweet smell of his hair that woke me up on Sunday mornings,” (Lott 5) shows her hatred underneath her love for her father. This vivid use if imagery enhances Jewel s feelings towards her father; the hatred she feels, that reoccurs every Saturday night, when her father visits to have a way at her mother, from whom he is separated from. This hatred is felt in the bitter-sweet description of how intrigued she is by him: ” and began to take things up, examine them for what they might tell me about the man I d wished dead” (Lott 13). She loves her father and this feeling shows itself after his death.

These events are very prominent in her life as she recalls them throughout the remainder of the novel not as absurdities, but as comforts from a memory of her parents:

I was different, changed in that I found comfort in the ghosts my sounds

brought forth, sounds that now like the children we were that first night, the canoe rocking, water sloshing beneath us. There was comfort in the ghosts of my parents, some sort of reconciliation, peace in the unformed words